Tsume graduates from the Academy somewhere near the bottom of her class with her partner, Kuromaru, little more than an eleven-month-old pup whose more paw and fur than anything else. It's only thanks to her clan name she gets put on a team.
She gets paired with a Kurama and Akimichi. Neither of them are bad, but they're distant and- and the Inuzuka Clan goes on at length about pack because it's one of the most important things that any of them will ever have. Being on a team doesn't feel like pack though, not to Tsume. She can't quite pinpoint why that is. Maybe it has to do with how the three of them don't really fall together, too busy with their individual paths and own skills; or maybe it has to do with how their teacher—an aged jōnin who should probably retire sometime soon—doesn't seem to care about them.
Most of all, Tsume thinks it's because they're new genins and a war has just kicked off.
As new genins, their team isn't expected on the frontlines, but they don't get to laze about and do nothing either. They train and Tsume knows that they're going to end up being part of the fight soon.
Because there's no way they'll be kept out of it. None of them are highly ranked among their clans. Tsume's the shortest of her agemates in the clan and her parents aren't anything special either. Really, she's about as average as you get and, although Kuromaru is probably part-wolf, he's not really anything special either.
"One day though," Tsume tells Kuromaru as they rest in the shadows of an old deciduous tree, "we're gonna change the world. Just you wait."
Kuromaru huffs and nudges her hand. His paws are still too big for him, but he's less likely to trip over them now and he's growing quickly. It won't be long until he's able to leap at an adult and take their throat out.
And Kuromaru isn't the only one growing either. Tsume is as well. She can see it in how she lasts longer in spars, trains for longer, becomes stronger. Her parents see it too, remark upon it. Her ma points out how she's eating more and her dad tells her she's standing straighter, and her mama—the only non-ninja between them—smiles with thin lips and says she's proud.
In the end, only three months out of the Academy, Tsume finds herself and her teammates out of Konoha for the first time. Their sensei leads them through a mission that's meant to be simple.
Except, they're in a war and nothing is ever simple.
They complete the mission and turn to head back to Konoha when they're found by a scouting group made up of Iwa-nins. Within minutes, Tsume's teammates have fallen and her sensei is hard-pressed to keep her safe.
"Go!" The word is less a shout and more an order. And Tsume, who knows of pack and all it means, also knows to listen to her superiors. With Kuromaru beside her, she turns tail and runs.
There are few things swifter than an Inuzuka running and the Iwa-nins behind Tsume are not part of that group. She leaves them in the dust, darting between the trees and easily slipping around bushes like she grew up in this forest and knows every inch of the ground.
She comes to a stop by a trickling creek. The water is cool down her throat, chasing away the dry raspy feeling she'd gained in the last hour of her hurtling run. Kuromaru laps up the water, silent beside her, and Tsume can't help but hate how everything's turned out to be. The forest is silent around her, except for the calls of birds and the bubbling of the water. It all seems so normal and it's wrong. How can things be normal when her teammates—who weren't pack but maybe one day could have been—and her sensei are dead?
How can Tsume go home like this? Alone, her team's deaths resting on her shoulders. She should have been faster, smarter, should have noticed the attack before it came. Of all of them, she and Kuromaru are the ones who have the better senses.
Kuromaru drops into her lap and Tsume drops her head into his fur and sobs. She knows she should try to get home but-
But she's tired and she's just lost her team and Tsume's tried to keep herself together as she ran, but now she no longer can.
Kuromaru licks her eyes, her cheeks, his rough tongue putting her back together. This is how Tsume reminds herself she's not alone. She nods at Kuromaru and stands, muscles and body aching but she has a mission to report the success of.
She's gotta go home.
When she looks at Kuromaru, he's already looking at her, panting and eyes crinkled up in a doggy smile. He huffs at her, headbutting her thigh, and she runs a hand down his head, scratching behind one ear. "You know what we've gotta do, don't you?"
Kuromaru's jaws move soundlessly, like he's barking but someone stole the noise. "Yeah," Tsume says fondly, never more grateful that she's not alone in life, "we're gonna change the world."
Crouching, Tsume refills her water canteen, before fixing it to her pack. She doesn't know where she is, only knows that there's a creek and somewhere behind her lie the bodies of her team. She could backtrack, could manage it easily, but that way lies the Iwa-nins and Tsume has no plans to find herself targeted by them again.
No, the only thing she can do now is travel in a direction and hope she finds Konoha—or other Konoha-nin who'd be willing to tell her which way to travel in. Even moving close to Konoha's whereabouts would be good, as the patrols would then be able to find her.
"Let's go Kuromaru," Tsume says, voice quiet, and then they're off.
This time they're not hurtling through the undergrowth at breakneck speed. They still move swiftly, but slower, taking care to leave no sign of their passing, to keep a wary eye out for those who might be around and more than willing to attack. Kuromaru manages to pick up the scent of unknown ninjas—smelling of dust and stone, so likely more Iwa-nins—and so they're forced to head further west.
West, Tsume knows, lies the main frontlines that sees Konoha-nin after Konoha-nin die. She has an awful feeling that she's closer to the frontlines than she really wants to be.
This quickly proves true when, on her second day of travelling by herself, Tsume finds herself on the edges of a battle.
She's high in the trees, away from the fighting and downwind too, so it's unlikely anyone knows she's there. The fight is between a group of five ninjas who don't seem to have any clear identifying marks and a trio of Konoha-nins who are fighting easily as a team.
Tsume keeps a hand in the Kuromaru's ruff, grounding herself. "What do you think?" She whispers, barely speaking the words.
Kuromaru looks at her, then back at the ground, and wags his tail once. He thinks they should join forces with the Konoha-nins and Tsume is thinking the same.
"Alright," she says, still whisper-soft.
Naturally, that's the moment one of the Konoha-nins goes down with a slice to the back of their knee. The other two Konoha-nins are pushed onto the defensive as they try to hurry to their teammate's side. From her vantage point, Tsume knows that there's no way either of them are going to manage it in time.
But they're not alone. And Tsume's not about to let another Konoha-nin die on her watch.
Without looking at Kuromaru, knowing that her partner is going to be having the same thought, Tsume throws herself downward through the tree branches. Kuromaru howls, the sound something fierce and snarl-like. It echoes off the surrounding trees, warping, and Tsume hits the ground with a roll. It's bumpy beneath her and she's bound to receive bruises from it, but she's up quickly and targeting the closest unaffiliated ninja.
She's small and they're not expecting it. With a quick move, she buries them up to their head in the ground and then slits their throat. She can't stop to think about it, can't pause, so she just presses her lips together so the blood doesn't go in her throat and forces herself forward.
Next to her, Kuromaru lunges up and forward, slamming into another ninja and tearing out their throat with his teeth. He snaps his teeth at a kunai and Tsume leapfrogs over him to steal another one thrown out of the air. She tosses it back in the direction it came, and slides into an Inuzuka Clan jutsu with Kuromaru. Together, they take out a third ninja.
They land, panting, bodies shuddering, and turn to the trio of Konoha-nins. The injured one is standing, though leaning heavily on their teammates. For a long moment, the two different groups eye one another, wary.
"Rank and number," one of the Konoha-nins snaps.
"00-735-0, genin," Tsume says immediately. She tilts her head at Kuromaru. "Inuzuka registered. Return info."
The trio exchange a series of expressions before they, too, give their rank and identification numbers. It's not like Tsume can actually tell whether or not they're lying, but it's best to ask the question anyway.
"What's a genin doing so far away from their team?" The leading Konoha-nin asks.
Tsume bares her teeth. "Fighting to survive," she responds. "I need to get back to Konoha." She doesn't tell them her team's dead. She doesn't need to.
The expressions of pity aren't welcome and Tsume grounds her teeth together in order to keep herself together. She doesn't want their pity or their sympathy.
"You're closer to the frontlines than Konoha," the same Konoha-nin says, apologetic. "You won't be able to head back until one of the groups rotate."
And, well, Tsume wants to change the world and Kuromaru's going to be by her side for it. So it really, the frontlines are the perfect place to begin. The odds are against her but…
Tsume's an Inuzuka and fighting's in her blood. She's going to come out of alive. Just watch her.
Originally, I'd planned to look at Tsume more when she was older and the badass, kickass person she is that we see in canon. Unfortunately, my muse disagreed and I got this instead. I hope you enjoyed! Honestly, I probably could have gone further with this and done a bit more of time passing through it, but I didn't quite have the time for it to be honest.